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Battle of Köse Dağ
|casus= |territory= |result=Decisive Mongol victory The Sultanate of Anatolia and the Empire of Trebizond became vassals of the Mongols. |combatant1= Mongol Empire Armenian auxiliaries |combatant2= Sultanate of Rum Georgian auxiliaries Trapezuntine]] auxiliaries |commander2=Kaykhusraw II Pharadavla of Akhaltsikhe Dardin Sharvashisdze |strength1=30,000S. Burhanettin Akbaş: Kayseri yöresine yerleşen Türk boyları ve akraba topluluklar, Geçit, 1997, page 45 states= Mongol army: 30,000 men; Seljuk army: 70,000 menAli Çimen, Göknur Akçadağ Göğebakan: Tarihi değiştiren savaşlar (engl.: Wars that changed history) ,Timaş Yayınevi, 2. Edition, 2007, ISBN 975-263-486-9, pg 134 states= Mongol army: 30,000 men; Seljuk army: 80,000 men-40,000Hüseyin Köroğlu: Konya ve Anadolu medreseleri, Fen Yayınevi, 1999, pages 29, 367. Anadolu University, I. Uluslararası Seyahatnamelerde Türk ve Batı İmajı Sempozyumu belgeleri: 28. X-1 XI. 1985, page 28 states: Mongol army= 40,000 men; Seljuk army= 60,000 men |strength2=60,000-80,000 (20,000-25,000 participated, the rest deserted)Ali Sevim, Erdoğan Merçil: Selçuklu devletleri tarihi: siyaset, teşkilât ve kültür, Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi, 1995, ISBN 9789751606907, page 472 Murat Ocak: The Turks: Middle ages, Yeni Türkiye, 2002, ISBN 9756782552 |casualties1=unknown |casualties2=3,000 killed }} The Battle of Köse Dağ was fought between the Seljuk Turks of Anatolia and the Mongols on June 26, 1243 at the defile of Köse Dağ (Ch'man-katuk ), a location between Erzincan and Gümüşhane in northeast Anatolia, modern Turkey,Anthony Bryer and Richard Winfield, The Byzantine Monuments and Topography of the Pontos, vol. 1, (Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks, 1985) 172, 353.Köy Köy Türkiye Yol Atlası (Istanbul: Mapmedya, 2006), map 61. that ended in a decisive Mongol victory. Background During the reign of Ögedei, the Seljuks of Anatolia offered friendship and a modest tribute to Chormaqan.C. P. Atwood, Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire, p. 555 Under Kaykhusraw II, however, the Mongols began to pressure the Sultan to go to Mongolia in person, give hostages, and accept a Mongol darugachi. The battle Under the leadership of the commander Bayju, the Mongols attacked the Seljuk Sultanate of Anatolia in the winter of 1242-43 and seized the city of Erzurum. Sultan Kaykhusraw II immediately called on his neighbours to contribute troops to resist the invasion. The Empire of Trebizond sent a detachment and the sultan engaged a group of "Frankish" mercenaries.Claude Cahen, Pre-Ottoman Turkey: a general survey of the material and spiritual culture and history, trans. J. Jones-Williams, (New York: Taplinger, 1968) 137. A few Georgian nobles such as Shamadavle of Akhaltsikhe also joined him, but the majority of the Georgians were compelled to fight alongside their Mongol masters. The decisive battle was fought at Köse Dağ on June 26, 1243. The primary sources do not record the size of the opposing armies but suggest that the Mongols faced a numerically superior force.Claude Cahen, “Köse Dagh” Encyclopaedia of Islam, ed. by P. Bearman, et al. (Brill 2007) Bayju brushed aside an apprehensive notice from his Georgian officer regarding the size of the Seljuk army, stating that they counted as nothing the numbers of their enemies: "the more they are the more glorious it is to win and the more plunder we shall secure", he replied.Henry Desmond Martin, "The Mongol army", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1943/1-2, pp. 46-85 The Seljuk commander, Kaykhusraw II, rejected the proposal of his experienced commanders to wait for the Mongol attack. Instead, he sent a force of 20,000 men, lead by inexperienced commanders, against the Mongol army. The Mongol army, pretending a retreat, turned back, encircled the Seljuk army and defeated it. When the rest of the Seljuk army witnessed their defeat, many Seljuk commanders and their soldiers, including Kaykhusraw II, started to abandon the battlefield. Eventually, the Seljuk army was left without leaders and most of their soldiers had deserted, without seeing any combat.Nuri Ünlü: İslâm tarihi 1, Marmara Üniversitesi, İlâhiyat Fakültesi Vakfı, 1992, ISBN 9755480072, page 492. After their victory, the Mongols took control of the cities of Sivas and Kayseri. The sultan fled to Antalya but was subsequently forced to make peace with Bayju and pay a substantial tribute to the Mongol Empire. Aftermath The defeat resulted in a period of turmoil in Anatolia and led directly to the decline and disintegration of the Seljuk state. The Empire of Trebizond became a vassal state of the Mongol empire. Furthermore the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia became a vassal state of the Mongols.İdris Bal, Mustafa Çufalı: Dünden bugüne Türk Ermeni ilişkileri, Nobel, 2003, ISBN 9755914889, page 61. Real power over Anatolia was exercised by the Mongols.Josef W. Meri, Jere L. Bacharach-Medieval Islamic Civilization: A-K, index, p.442 After a long period of fragmentation, Anatolia was unified by the Ottoman dynasty. External links *Kirakos of Gandzak: History of Armenia (part 35) 13th century *History of Anatolian Seljuks References Category:Mongol Empire Category:Battles involving the Mongols Category:Battles involving the Sultanate of Rum Category:Battles involving Georgia (country) Category:Battles in medieval Anatolia Category:Conflicts in 1243 Category:History of Erzincan Province Category:History of Gümüşhane Province Category:Battles involving the Empire of Trebizond